


Through Red and Tears

by GhostlyWitchAvenger



Series: Misc. Star Trek Ideas, Snippets, and Stories [7]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Digital Art, Fan Art, Gen, but it's up to you, implied McKirk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-30 13:28:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12109725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostlyWitchAvenger/pseuds/GhostlyWitchAvenger
Summary: Leonard should have known that he’d been lucky up until now.The last two chapters are different endings





	1. Blurred and Red

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to my tumblr

Red lights flashed. Tears obscured his vision.

Bones remembered those times when the  _ Enterprise  _ was boarded in the past. He had rushed to the side of any soul he could help; even venturing into the powered down areas of the ship where the red alert dared not to flash, despite his instincts screaming at him to get somewhere safe.

Down those dark halls, no one moved. They were all dead or too injured to leave. The surviving crew - more sensible than he - who were able enough had cleared, reporting to their stations or getting somewhere safer.

So when he knelt down by the ones he could help they gazed up at him with hope shining in their eyes, dirty face streaked with sweat and tears, “Thank God,” They would say, “We thought it was too late; that no help would come.”

“I’m here,” He would say in response, “You’re gonna live.”

At the time, he had never understood that fear they held onto until he had arrived. The fear that they would die alone, with nothing but flashing red lights and their blinding pain for company.

McCoy understood it now.

Like those other times, he had snuck down the darkened halls, healing those that he could and directing them to the storage rooms that provided a safe haven to get their strength back.

He had been silently making his way down a deserted path. No corpses or injured crew present. It was just him, and the gentle hum of the ship.

Leonard should have known that he’d been lucky up until now.

One of the hostile aliens that had boarded had turned the corner, taken one glance at him and fired their weapon.

There was no time to move out of the way.

It had been nearly fifteen minutes since he had been thrown against the wall, his tricorder sliding away from him and blood seeping through his fingers at an alarming rate. The red never stopped flashing, and the tears of pain spilled past his lashes without his consent.

Bones was shivering. His fingers and toes were numb. His vision was tunneling. It was getting harder to keep pressure on the wound. A low whine escaped his lips.

He didn’t even notice when the red lights gave way to white, not until hands stroked his face and shook his shoulders, touching him all over and putting pressure on the wound he couldn’t feel anymore.

“Bones…?” McCoy blinked blearily up at the yellow blob before him, before allowing his eyes to slip shut. He was just so  _ tired _ , “Bones, wake up! Please!”

As he felt himself get pulled under, he couldn’t help but think that if he was being helped, it was far too late.


	2. Happy Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After cozying up to the fatigued doctor, who had tugged on his arm to pull him closer, Jim allowed himself to finally relax with a yawn.

Most people who knew James Kirk would describe him as an energetic individual. He was always moving, talking about this and that; his hands fidgeting with whatever was in reach.

So, it was unnerving for most to see the ship’s captain sitting ever so still in Sickbay, studying the relaxed, stubbled face of his CMO and talking to a man who couldn’t hear him. M’Benga had told him, after a few hours of intensive surgery, that Leonard was in the clear and needed time to make a full recovery.

“If you had found him any later, there wouldn’t have been anything we could have done for him, captain.”

Those words had settled like a heavy stone in his gut, twisting his insides to the point that he felt like throwing up.

Well, maybe he did... a little.

After the doctor’s close brush with death, Jim hadn’t moved from his place beside him. It had taken a lot of persuasion on Spock’s part to get him into a change of Sickbay scrubs and out of his blood-soaked uniform, the Vulcan not even bothering to attempt his captain’s removal from the area.

Yellow fabric drenched with  _ Bones’ _ blood.

It had been three days since then, and every night, much to Chapel’s disapproval, Jim slipped under the covers right next to his still unconscious friend, pushing as close as he was comfortable doing.

Spock had questioned his actions one morning, when he came in to update him on the progress of the  _ Enterprise _ ’s repairs.

“Back at the academy, we’d do this a lot. Comfort each other with our presence, that is, especially on the days where everything was too much. It was convenient at the time, both of us sharing a room and all. Now, I guess it’s so I can reassure myself, you know?” He had said softly, fingers gently tugging at the loose thread on the blanket, “That he’s still here, and alive, with us,” The ‘with me’ went left unsaid, but rang loud and clear between the two of them. He hadn’t moved from his spot for nearly an hour after that, until Christine had shooed him away for Leonard’s daily check-up.

So, here he was again. Reports were filed away for the day and exhaustion settled deep in his bones as he snuck under the covers, gently throwing an arm over McCoy and burying his nose into his shoulder.

_ Bones is okay. Bones is safe. Bones is  _ alive.

“Jim?” Kirk nearly fell off the bed at the groggy voice, scooting backward just enough to slip off the biobed, “‘S that you?”

Surprised at Leonard’s sudden wakefulness and relieved at the turn of events, Jim huffed a breathless laugh, “Yeah Bones, it’s me. It’s good to see you awake. How are you feeling?”

He chose not to answer that question, peeking over his shoulder as he brought up a hand to rub the sleep from his eyes, “Were you just on the bed?”

“No. You’re just tired.”

“True. But you’re a liar,” McCoy sniffed, lifting the thin cotton blanket up by the corner, “Get back here.”

“Bones, I should get M’Benga-.”

“Shut up and get here, infant. I wann’ go back to sleep, and I’m cold.”

After cozying up to the fatigued doctor, who had tugged on his arm to pull him closer, Jim allowed himself to finally relax with a yawn.

“Bones, Bones, Bones…” He breathed, nuzzling his face into the back of Leonard’s neck, “Is this what it feels like when I get hurt all of those times? The fear of not knowing if I’d make it or not? Bleeding through your fingers as you try to save me?”

A hum of agreement is all he received in response, Bones starting to nod off already as his breathing deepened.

“Then I want you to promise me something, Doctor McCoy,” Jim allowed some of his ‘Captain Kirk’ voice to slip through, “I’m going to try even harder to come back to you safe and healthy, every time. But I need you to do the same for me. Can you do that? Please?

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

When Bones didn’t respond right away, he figured his CMO had already fallen asleep. He was pleasantly surprised to find that assumption wrong, especially when he got the following answer, “I’ll try, Jim. Honest to God, I’ll try my best.”

Teary-eyed and with a smile stretching his lips, Jim allowed himself to drift to sleep, with the words, “That’s all I ask,” Fading on his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted to my tumblr


	3. Sad Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Dammit, Scotty, McCoy doesn’t have an hour!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The 'major character death' warning applies to this chapter

“Come on, Bones, open those eyes for me,” No matter how much he tried to wake the dying man in front of him, hazel eyes refused to open to his demands, “Please, Bones!” Panic and adrenaline coursed through his veins, a cold sweat running down his back as his command gold and uniform pants quickly absorbed the blood leaving Leonard’s body.

_ Focus _ ! What did Bones always tell him to do when trying to help save a crew member, during that medical crash course all those years ago?

“Find the site of the wound and do what you can to stem the blood flow,” He had said, Georgian accent heavy as he demonstrated how to temporarily bind a deep laceration, “Get professional help as soon as possible. Take note of their symptoms. There’s a lot that can be told by looking at how it’s affectin’ them.”

_ Left upper quadrant. Left hypochondriac region. Disruptor injury. No exit wound. Heavy arterial bleeding. Possible splenic laceration? _

With one hand applying pressure to the large injury on McCoy’s abdomen, Jim flipped open his communicator with shaking fingers, voice trembling and weak as he desperately called his chief engineer, “I need an emergency transport to Sickbay, Scotty, and I need it now!”

_ Skin around the area is pale. Partially congealed blood. Some time has passed since the initial injury.  _

“I cannae get an exact lock on your signal, sir,” The engineer’s Scottish brogue crackled through the speakers, “I can try bringin’ the power back online to decks nine and thirteen, which oughta help, but that’ll take abou’ an hour to complete.”

_ Blood pressure decreasing. Body temperature dropping. Unresponsive. Get help get help get help  _ now _. _

“Dammit, Scotty, McCoy doesn’t  _ have _ an hour!” He tried to ignore the singed tricorder merely feet away from where he was, the only thing present in the hall asides from the two of them. The pool of blood he was kneeling in glared up at him under the lights, shining ominously against the black of the floor.

“While the transporter cannae find you,  _ I _ can. I’m sendin’ a medical team down to your location sir, jus’ hold on ‘til they get there!” 

Jim shut his communicator with a sharp snap and a cry of frustration, pushing a little harder on the bloody wound under his hand. Sickbay was completely slammed immediately following the attack, so he knew they’d be a long time in coming. They were the reason why he had found Bones in the first place, as Chapel had called the Bridge and asked for them to send McCoy down to help, thinking that he was with them.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,  _ fuck _ ,” He mumbled, a string of curses flying past his lips. He pocketed the device as he checked Leonard for any more injuries, fingers prodding gently at the knot hidden in his hairline.

Wait…

“Bones…?”

_ No pulse. No heartbeat. Cause? Exsanguination.  _

“Please, Bones,” His voice hitched, tears running down his cheeks and creating dark spots on the blue uniform beneath him, “Wake up.” 

_ “What if they bleed out, Bones?” _

_ “CPR is only a poor replacement for a heartbeat. It helps pump blood through the body when the heart can’t any longer. If there isn’t any blood to pump, CPR won’t help you, Jim. I know how you are, don’t blame yourself if this happens. There’s nothin’ you can do. Nothin’ at all.”  _

An ugly sob burst forth as he gathered Bones into his arms, stroking the rapidly cooling flesh of his face and brushing bloody strands of hair off of his forehead. A litany of pleas rushed past his lips as he rocked in place, cradling the body gently like it was the most precious thing in the world.

A low whine sounded in his throat, like that of a wounded animal, as he placed a gentle kiss on Bones’ forehead. 

“I can’t do this without you.”

_ “He’s dead, Jim.” _

He didn’t even get to say goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted to my tumblr


End file.
